Entrepreneur says Win 8 marks end of PCs

OEMs currently load a handful of standard software bundles on PCs, often
including programs of marginal use to consumers that software
developers pay OEMs to include. Shapiro claims using his software, OEMs
could offer a unique service to download exactly what a consumer chooses
from a vast and open PC app store.

The Imbue process uses a
technique of erasing the unwanted software from a master image by
erasing its metadata. The technique on which the company has five
granted and 12 pending patents is more than an order of magnitude faster
than the current method OEMs use for loading each program sequentially.

“There’s
a tremendous amount of convenience to having the desired software
pre-loaded and you can have this done economically now,” Shapiro said.
“I was in a major manufacturing facility last month, and depending on
the model and configuration, [loading software] takes two to four hours
typically and six to10 hours for some special configurations."

Shapiro
declined to share commercial terms of licensing Imbue's technology. “We
are initially looking for a single large entity that would benefit by
having and exclusive on this process, but I would consider an
alternative of working with a consortium,” he said.

The author has compared with DOS and windows and imagined that PC's will end like DOS due to windows 8.It is not so. Windows is user friendly,no need to specially learn and so every one switched to it from DOS.PC's are going to be always there in every company due to its flexibility and its reliability.Probably an advanced version of PC's might emerge out with different style.

The underlying assumption is that the whole world is going mobile, and the future is ARM based tablets and smartphone with low power consumption because battery life is the scarce resource.
I don't believe it.
A lot of things are going mobile, and there is a great deal of activity in the mobile space, but I don't see the desktop or laptop going away any time soon. Think about what you do on the PC, and tell me how much of that you think will translate to a tablet or smartphone form factor?
You might be able to make a total transition. I can't.
PCs will be with us for a while, and the difficulty of making money on commodity products was there before smartphones became omnipresent or tablets existed.

Sorry, but it strikes me as another concept that seems aimed at the most clueless lightweight users.
First off, even if a PC traditionally comes loaded with certain software, so what? The user can easily remove what he doesn't want, and install what he does want. I've always spent the first hour or so, with a new PC, getting rid of useless garbage and adding in applications I do use. It's very easy to do.
Secondly, just because most people in their leisure hours like to play with low-powered toys, with tiny screens, does not translate to "therefore performance-oriented PCs with large, or even multiple screens, are doomed." That's ridiculous, right?
But most of all, a PC is not necessarily a Wintel machine. If the high performance PC becomes, say, ARM and Linux, it's still a PC. It's still a very flexible, very upgradeable, high performance tool, that allows for all manner of uses that small handhelds simply do not provide.
Perhaps someone here is offering a service that facilitates the customization of PC software to a user's preferences. But to make that point, I don't see why all the "PC is doomed" drama has to be used?

It is surprising how few see the obvious.
It would be helpful for other experts to comment and add insight.
Here is how I see it.
(1) Windows (traditional desktop) is dying. No one is programming for it anymore.
(2) Even if MS/Intel get mobile right....it is too late to ever enjoy the margins that they had with WINTEL monopoly.
How did this happen?
(1) Windows/X86 allows this to happen by missing mobile / SOCs. Intel's technology team was too focused on MHz and performance when power trend was obvious 10 years ago. I hear it is only this year that Intel's technology group is now taking power seriously and stopped the crazy focus on high cost and high performance.
(2) MS software did not help either . Software is bloated for mobile. Just look at Windows 8. It takes 20G of install space. That is extra cost (20G of NAND just needed for operating system) so that adds power that iOS and Android don't have and adds cost as well. For example ....windows 8 tablet can't even offer 8 or 16G table like low end table like Ipad/Nexus due to larger size of OS.
anyone else have insight into the sickness that is killing WINTEL